Going West
by Go9Raku
Summary: "The West" a romanticized land of trains, dragon riders, behemoths and gun fights at high-noon, well at least in the North American server of Elder Tale that is. This is the story about one guild's struggle with flavor texts, guns, riots and a scouting quest for a transcontinental rail road that may become more than it bargained for. Welcome to the Land of Wen!
1. Prolouge

Prologue: Phone Call

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><p><strong>＜＜CONTRACT SIGNED＞＞<strong>

**＜＜**TRAN-SERVER **INTERCOMMUNICATION ENABLED＞＞**

**＜＜CALL TO シロエ＞＞**

**＜＜大和SERVER CALL： START＞＞**

**Cannibal:**「よお！ 久しぶりだな、シロエ。」_(Hey! Long time no see, Shiroe!)_

**シロエ:**「誰…てっ、カニバル？！」_(Who? Wait, Cannibal?!)_

**Cannibal:**「ああ、そうだ。確か、アメリカに引っ越した以来だな？」_(Yeah. Haven't seen you since I moved to America right)_

**シロエ:**「ハハ、そうだな、でも、こうして話してるんだったら、向こうでも起きたんだな…」_(Haha, yeah. But seeing I'm talking to you, it happened over there too, didn't it?)_

**シロエ:** 「大災害。」 _(The Apocalypse)_

**Cannibal:**「ま、そういうこと。」_(Pretty much.)_

**シロエ:**「…」

**Cannibal:**「ここではそんなに大した事無いぜ？ま、'陰謀だ！'とか言ううるさいやつらをぬけば。」_(No one's really panicking over here. Well, besides a few people who won' shut up about "conspiracies")_

**シロエ:**「"さすがだ"、と言うべきか？」_(Should I should say "as expected"?)_

**Cannibal:**「"米ゲーマー畏れ入れます" 出いいよ （笑）。」_("I respect you American gamers" would be enough, lol)_

**？？？:** "Hey ! Cannibal, hurry it up! You don't have much time left."

**Cannibal:** "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

**シロエ:**「いまのは？」_(that was?)_

**Cannibal:**「俺のギルドのやつだ。ごめん、今、特性アイテムでサーバー外のシロエと話してるんだけど、もうすぐ時間切れみたいだ。でも、また話ができてよかったよ。あの人、元気か？」_(One of my guildmates. Sorry, I'm using a special item right now to talk to you cross server but I'm almost out of time. It was great talking to you though. How's that person?)_

**シロエ:**「カナミのことはわからない。彼女がEUサーバーに引っ越した後話してないからな。」_(I wouldn't know how Kanami is. Haven't talked to her after she moved to the EU servers.)_

**Cannibal:**「へー、別のサーバーに引っ越したんだ...」_(I see, so she moved to a different server…)_

**？？？:** "Cannibal! 30 seconds!"

**Cannibal:** "Yeah, I can see the timer Veil!"

**Cannibal:**「ま、これでまた当分は話せないだろうけど、元気でな、シロエ。"_(Probably won't be able to talk to you any time soon so, take care of yourself, Shiroe.)_

**シロエ:**「ああ、お前もだ」_(Yeah, you too.)_

**Cannibal:**「そして、いつもみたいに無理するんじゃないよ、この腹黒目がね（笑）」_(and don't push yourself to hard like you usually do, evil glasses, lol.)_

**シロエ:** "お前もだ、糞吸血鬼。"_(You too shitty vampire.)_

** ？？？:** "Cannibal! Once you're done talking with your overseas girlfriend, how about you help Lord Gates find the tunnel the train's going to pass through!"

**Cannibal:** "I'll do it, so shut up about it will you?"

**シロエ:**「トレイヌ？」_(Train?)_

**＜＜大和SERVER CALL： ENDED＞＞**

「『大した事無い』、か...」_("No one's really panicking", huh…")_ muttered Cannibal to himself.

"I should really break my habit of lying…"


	2. Chapter 1

"IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIIIIIIVE!"

-Rob the Builder of the Crafting Guild "Batteries Not Included", on the creation of the first steam engine in the North American Server.

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><p>Server: Land of Wen (North American Server)<p>

City: Brotherhood (Philadelphia)

Guild Hall: Manifest Destiny

One Week Ago…

"Well, we're a small guild right? And even though we have lots of strong players, like you and Veil, we don't have the numbers to really do raids or any of that stuff." Grindalf, the guild master of Manifest Destiny, said from behind the mountain of paperwork that always seemed to be piled up on his desk, no matter when he was visited. Cannibal had rarely ever seen Grindalf's face when he was working except for the odd occasion when Grindalf poked his head over the tower of papers to tell him something important. The small room was cluttered with maps, magical items, books, catalogues, glowing orbs that floated around the room like fireflies, and pushed to the side, a massive printing press, a gift Grindalf had received from one of his crafting guild friends.

_That I had to carry. _Cannibal remembered. He still had back pains from the incident, no matter how many times the healers of his guild placed healing spells on him.

It was not rare for Grindalf to call Cannibal to his room. Cannibal was one of the few players in the guild above level 90, and had a broader knowledge of the game from his time in Yamato, the Japanese server of Elder Tale. He was also the head of the dungeon exploring parties and was frequently dragged into Grindalf's mad schemes of information gathering. While many of the his other guild members didn't trust him due to his history as a vigilante in the Big Apple and his questionable username (a username which he thought was cool when he was still oblivious to its actual meaning in English), Grindalf seemed to take full confidence in him the moment he joined the guild. While Cannibal thought his guild master was a bit strange, he had always been thankful for his trust.

"After the Apocalypse and the… troubles in Big Apple," Grindalf continued "we lost a lot of our battle players to the Militia."

A sigh resonated through the room.

_So he's still annoyed at that, huh._ Cannibal thought.

"It's only natural." the Grindalf said after regaining composure. "That's where all the action was. No one wanted to map out raid zones or write dungeon guides. That wasn't "in" anymore. And why work in a cartographer's guild when you could fight the good fight against the PKs of Big Apple right?"

Bang.

Cannibal jumped as the sound of two fists slamming against a desk echoed through the room sending a few loose papers floating up into the air.

"That's why we need to open a new front, a new output of action!" Grindalf yelled triumphantly, "And when it opens I want the guild Manifest Destiny to be at the forefront of it!"

Grindalf leaped up onto his chair, poking his head just over the mounds of paperwork, his mismatched green and blue eyes gleaming under the goggle like contraption he wore, that constantly shifted through three to four multicolored lenses attached to it every time he blinked.

"So go my loyal sparrow!" He shouted, "On into the great unknown and bring honor to thy guild!"

His head disappeared under the papers as he, sat back into his chair.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah, since when was I your "loyal sparrow"?" asked Cannibal.

"Ummm…." Grindalf, probably expecting a more positive response, was silent for a moment.

"And why do I have to go do this?" asked Cannibal.

Cannibal did appreciate the Grindalf's trust in him. He did. However, he still couldn't always return that trust. Having been sent countless times blind into raid zones without being told that they were, in fact, suspected raid zones, instead of "new avenues of adventure", Cannibal was wary of the guild master, especially when he gave over the top speeches. Plus, he really didn't like the idea of going out into the sun for more than he had to.

"Why not just send Veil or Chief?" he asked, "I signed up for dungeon crawling so I wouldn't have to worry about my subclass. Going out on a road trip under the sun is a little…"

"But!" Grindalf interrupted, "You got that cloak from the last dungeon delve right? The one that nullifies light effects? Broken Felix?"

"Broken Eclipse." corrected Cannibal.

"Yeah, the gothy looking one!" Grindalf said, "You could wear that, and you should be fine right?"

Cannibal sighed. Sunlight effected Vampanellas even when they wore cloaks, much to Cannibal's annoyance. He would still get violently sick in the sunlight, and would still lose a swath of his stats no matter what item he equipped, no matter how much he wore to cover himself. The only remedy against the sun was being in doors, or in a zone fifty feet below the surface. It was a harsh reality Cannibal had to deal with every day.

"The best it'll do is stop me from getting sunburnt." He replied.

"Well see, that's one problem down!" Grindalf laughed.

"Grindalf." Cannibal said shaking his head.

"Hey, hey," replied Grindalf, "in my guild, call me "guild master" or "honorable leader". "Chosen one" or "Thou who art heavily revered" is good too."

"Hey, idiot."

"Wait! Isn't that a bit harsh?" cried Grindalf.

Cannibal ignored him. "You've told me so far to go on a quest, to ride across America…"

"Land of Wen." Grindalf interrupted.

"Fine. Across Wen, with Veil and Chief, even though you know that I'll be in a weakened state half the ride there, and you're not telling me why. Doesn't that sound a bit, oh, I don't know, suspicious?"

"Well," Grindalf replied, "I'm sending Hawk Rain and Lord Gates too, so what you said isn't completely 100% tru-"

"Why?" Cannibal interrupted, suddenly feeling uneasy.

"Why what?" laughed Grindalf nervously, "Hawk Rain is a strong member of the guild, in case something happened she would be great…"

"No," interrupted Cannibal, "why are you sending a party of five Lv. 90s on a mapping quest?"

It was bizarre. Most mapping quests, even for raid zones, would consist of three level 90s at most, equipped with teleportation crystals to use once they got to the boss chambers. The parties mostly consisted of stealth based players like Cannibal and healers players. Mapping out many raid zones himself, Cannibal knew what sort of players were most efficient for mapping quests. However, the five man party that Grindalf put together, did not fit the description of a scouting party at all. It seemed more of a pool of the guilds strongest adventurers. Almost like a party you'd send to a raid.

Grindalf tried to back track, "Hawk Rain is level 89 actua-"

Cannibal cut him off, "With two high level tanks like Chief and Veil, she's pretty much a Lv. 90."

"Yeah, but…"

"You have to tell me what's happening. Or I'm out." Cannibal said firmly.

Grindalf's voice was uneasy behind the wall of papers, "Come on, that's hardly…"

Cannibal picked up the stack of papers in front of the obscured guild master and lightly placed them in a corner of the room.

"Hey wait! I was reading those!" cried Grindalf indignantly leaning over the desk and reaching toward the stack of papers on the other side of the room.

"Grindalf," Cannibal said turning back to him, "What's happening? You have a bad habit of keeping things to yourself, maybe it's because you have glasses, but just because you're guild master, doesn't mean you have to keep all your plans secret."

"Wait, did you say "Because I have glasses"? That's discriminatory!" cried Grindalf in mock outrage, "Apologize to glasses wearers everywhere! Plus these are an item called Scribes Eyes and have nothing-"

"Seriously. What are you planning?" asked Cannibal glaring at him with his red eyes, "What is so important about this mapping quest, that you'll send five level 90s to complete it."

Grindalf leaned back into his chair, his curly brown hair casting a shadow over his eyes.

"What are you planning?" he laughed, "Cannibal, I'm not some kind of criminal mastermind that you can spout that one-liner on."

"Grin-"

Grindalf raised his hands in defeat.

"No, no, you're right," he said scratching the back of his head, "I have been keeping some cards close to my chest." He took off his goggles and stared up at the glowing fairy orbs hovering around the ceiling.

"Morning Star." he said finally.

"What?" Cannibal asked.

Grindalf looked back at Cannibal, his usually bright and wide eyes had changed to a stern and piercing stare.

"You remember the guild meeting we had a while back?" he asked.

Cannibal thought for a moment "The one for the small guilds?"

"Yeah, that one." Grindalf replied wrapping his finger around a strand of his hair.

"There was a surprise guest that attended," he said, "an "ambassador" from Morning Star, through a chat call." Grindalf let out an empty laugh, "Christ, we already have people going around as "generals" and "ambassadors", right? It seems like a dream, the days when this was all just a game we played to kill time."

"Morning star…" muttered Cannibal.

He had heard of them. Before the Apocalypse, they were a famous Wild West themed battle guild made up of all cavaliers and duelists. After the Apocalypse however, much like how the guild The Militia was trying to maintain order in the North-East, Morning Star started to moderate between the guilds and policing the adventurers in the Mid-West.

"The ambassador," Grindalf continued, "came to us with the proposition to make a Transcontinental Railroad."

"Wait, railroad as in a train?!" Cannibal asked.

"Well, it's not really transcontinental," Grindalf admitted, pulling a rolled up sheet of parchment from under his desk, "Here,"

Grindalf spread out the parchment for Cannibal to see. On it was a map of the Land of Wen. However it differed from the usual maps by having a shaky line connecting Philadelphia and Austin, Brotherhood and Dixie.

"More like Semi- Continental," he said, "but it's still quite the distance." Grindalf drew a circle with his finger around the area that surrounded Dixie, the Wastes.

"They've already got the PLs (People of the Land) on their side to help build it." he said, "However, to complete it they needed permission from the nobles here."

"And I guess that's where you come in?" asked Cannibal.

"The Militia already declined the offer, so they needed someone else to talk the nobles into doing it." Grindalf said, smiling, "I liked the deal, and figured with the funding of the nobles and even the Church of Light, and the tech from the craft guilds, we could build this."

Grindalf refolded the map and put it back under his desk.

"Think about it. Our relationship with the PLs are only limited to the military quarantine of Big Apple." Grindalf said. "They don't trust us, and seeing those rabid PKs in Big Apple, they don't like us. We have an uneasy truce with them at best."

Grindalf picked up his goggles and inspected them turning them so they caught the light.

"What better way to get them on our side than give them a gift," he looked up at Cannibal, "especially if they'll do most of the work for us?"

Cannibal shivered as Grindalf's plan reminded him of something his old friend would do, "I'm feeling intense dejavu."

"What?" asked Grindalf.

Cannibal shook his head. "Nothing. Go on."

Grindalf shrugged and continued, "We had a meeting with the nobles and Archbishop later, spewed some stuff about how it would help trade and their religion. One of the craft guilds had already made a steam engine so we showed that to them. They ate it up." Grindalf said chuckling.

"Your evil." Said Cannibal laughing.

"Hey! If enjoying watching people dance around in the palm of your hand is evil, then fine, I'm evil!" said Grindalf, in his regular joking fashion.

He then caught himself, and smiled sadly.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"I didn't mean it as-"

"Anyway,' Grindalf said, cutting him off, "the deal was, long story short, they'd make the railway, if we provided protection, and I volunteered my guild to scout out the territory first."

He pointed at Cannibal "Any questions so far?"

"Yeah," Cannibal replied, "Why keep it secret?"

"Well number one, you didn't need to know. Number two, it makes me feel better that I know a secret and you don't." Cannibal scowled but allowed Grindalf to continue, "And number three I was worried."

"That the Militia would find out?" asked Cannibal

Gindalf laughed, "The Militia is so tied up with the Big Apple business they don't care what we do."

He stood up and picked out some papers from the stack to his right.

"No, it's that I've been hearing disturbing rumors about the North." he said.

"Canada?" Cannibal laughed, "Why are you worried about Cana-?" Remembering Grindalf was from Canada he immediately bit his tongue.

"Why are you Americans so fixated on making fun of Canada every chance you get?" Grindalf asked in an annoyed voice.

"I'm only half-American." replied Cannibal.

"Don't give me that." laughed Grindalf.

"No," he said, "I've heard rumors that there are a few guild who've taken power up there that aren't… the best people, so to speak."

Cannibal raised an eyebrow.

"We caught a guy listening in on our meeting." Grindalf said after a long pause.

He started moving around his desk, stepping over papers left and right.

"He was noticed by one of the guild masters with high tracker level so he couldn't have been there for very long." Grindalf explained, walking over to the stack of papers Cannibal had moved to the corner of the room.

"But the disturbing part was after he got caught…" continued Grindalf.

He picked out a paper from the stack and turned back to Cannibal.

"He killed himself to get away."

Cannibal's eyes widened.

When Elder Tale was still a game it was common for adventurers to die and respawn again at the cathedral in every major city, and after the Apocalypse the system remained. However, two things were different. One was that you'd feel the pain of dying, and two, after you died, you'd be faced with every flaw and every failure you had. If you died a hundred times you'd have to look at how awful of a person you were a hundred times. Cannibal had already gone through it once, and it was not an experience he would be in a hurry to repeat.

_For someone to commit suicide just to escape…_

"Some of the battle guilds sent guards to the cathedral. Seeing he didn't spawn there, he must've had some sort of portable shrine within the city. Smuggling a shrine into a city isn't a one man job, so there are probably more like him already here." Grindalf sighed, "That was the third reason I wanted to keep it as secret as possible." His eyes narrowed. "We don't want leaks to people who don't need to know."

"I got it." said Cannibal looking downward. "Sorry I asked."

Grindalf patted his shoulder, "Don't be. You were right, I can be a little… protective of information. I guess it's good in our business but it isn't the best in people situations."

"Anyway," he said returning to his usual light mood, "If you don't want to do the quest that's fine, but if you do, and this is not a bribe by any means, I'll give you this."

Grindalf held a sheet of paper to Cannibal's face.

"What's this?" asked Cannibal trying to read the contents of the paper.

"This," began Grindalf triumphantly, "is a contract I wrote up recently, which was made entirely by me (and maybe a help or two by some of the craft guilds), that grants you permission to access adventurer logs cross server for 5 minutes."

Cannibal grabbed the contract, "You mean…"

"It can access all my friends in Japan and let me talk to my long lost girl friend who I left behind without saying goodbye?" Grindalf raised his hands in triumph, "I didn't know you had an overseas girlfriend, but yes, it should."

Grindalf pointed at the signature box at the bottom of the paper.

"Just sign there and it should be possible. Emphasis on "should"."

Cannibal looked at the paper and then back to Grindalf.

"Ok, you win." He said finally.

"Good," Grindalf smiled, "Oh, I might have to warn you but be careful of-"

* * *

><p>Hey! Go9Raku here and thanks for reading my Fanfic. I loved the concept of Log Horizon for a while and decided to add another "Elsewhere in Elder Tale" to this site (cause hey who doesn't want to read about all the death and destruction Leo was talking about in New York?). Did my best to keep it as canon as possible (though that usually just means looking up random wiki pages), but if there is something uncanon tell me, depending on what it is I might change it... or I might not, if I like it.<p>

This Fic went on for a little bit longer than expected so just a forewarning (or a an incentive depending on if you like this fic or not) the next few might not all be this long.

Questions, comments, are all welcome! Except when I utterly ignore them, which could happen, I'm not sure yet. Still new to this Fanfiction thing.

Peace out \m/O.O


	3. Chapter 2

"I said "set phasers to kill", not "set phasers to pathetic." Redo it. We don't need peashooters we need guns!"

-Marshal Law, Guild Master of Morning Star, after firing the first [Rifle] ever crafted in Elder Tales

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><p>Server: Land of Wen (North American Server)<p>

Zone: The Spires of Mariki (Appalachian Mountains)

Present day

"PKs, closing in!" Chief's voice trumpeted over the sound of the drumming of drake's feet and the groaning of the caravan's wheels. He turned his head to the front of the caravan while keeping his posture in place, using his massive body and towering shield to block the incoming bullets, and raising his double bladed axe to place Healing Light on Lord Gates who was nearing orange health.

"Step on it Veil!" he laughed as a hail of bullets pounded against his shield, "Unless you want us to turn to Swiss cheese!"

"The drakes can only go so fast." Veil called back at him from the front, his voice sounding bored even in the situation they were in, "Maybe if they weren't so freaked out at the bullets that you seem to be letting through they'd be faster." He none the less, whipped the reins on the screeching 5 foot lizards that were pulling the rickety wooden wagon through the cramped depths of the tunnel.

"Apologies!" called Chief. He looked at Cannibal and winked, "This old body is not what it used to be."

Cannibal sighed "Please say stuff like that when you're at least in your forties."

"Thirty is the new forty!" The battle cleric laughed as he aimed his axe at an approaching player.

"Argent Chaîne!" he yelled firing a ray of silver light at an approaching adventurer. The Adventure clutched his eyes and fell of his horse, hitting the stone floor and disappearing under a storm of hooves.

Chief was one of the older players in Manifest Destiny, and viewed as the father figure in the guild. In battle, with his shield, booming laugh, and assortment of healing spells, he was a comforting player in times of crisis. Though Cannibal had not paired with him very much in parties due to them having different roles within the guild, he had nothing against the cleric and even felt some relief that Chief was there. Unlike, some of the other players in the expedition party, he was very reliable and had a good sense of teamwork.

"How many of them are there?" called Veil from the front.

"Too many to fight!" Cannibal called back.

It had taken 4 days to reach the Spires of Mariki, a feat that owed itself to the swiftness of their tamed drakes, and the spells they had placed on the wagon. The road there had been mainly farmlands and towns, and they did not have to worry about monster or PK attacks.

However the Spires were different. After the riots in the Big Apple, many small time PK guilds that fled the city took occupancy in zones that the armored hand of the Militia couldn't reach. Among them, the zone, Spires of Mariki, were the most notorious due to the sheer size of the zone, and the access it gave to smaller zones with in it. The PKs there could make easy living farming dungeons and attacking caravans that passed through the area, running down and killing anyone who came through the narrow paths.

The PKs that were chasing them were from a particularly infamous guild, "The Bloody Raiders" a PK group that contained 5~6 level 90s and countless members below. They had enough members for a full raid (24 members) and seemed to be using their full force to catch them.

_Great._ Thought Cannibal.

"Give up and we'll make your death quick!" a raider screamed from behind a cow skull mask, spurring his horse up besides the caravan.

Thunk.

A one foot long iron nail suddenly protruded out of his horse's head, sending it crashing to the ground.

The iron nail, the throwing weapon [Curse of the Blood Baron], reappeared in Cannibals hand, "Sorry, I don't have any intention of giving up to people who use clichéd one-liners."

"Says you…" A voice mumbled.

Bang.

Cannibal turned back in time to see a bullet whiz past his face and hit a rider wearing a dire bear pelt in the chest.

"Head shot… Reload… ten minute cool down till next shot…" Hawk Rain mumbled behind the camouflaged patterned war paint that covered her face, her small figure, disproportional to the massive rifle she had just fired.

Guns were present in the North American server for some time but, they were limited to blunderbusses which could only be used by pirates. No pistols or rifles had been introduced to Elder Scrolls before the Apocalypse. However, after the Apocalypse, with new abilities for creation, many crafting guilds went straight to work on crafting a gun.

The first adventurer to create a functioning rifle, KDGuardian, from the city of Dixie (Austin), was also the first to create his own subclass, [Gunsmith]. He shared his gun schematics and knowledge with crafting guilds across the server which led to the creation of 3 main types of guns.

The first, the Alchemist Repeater, was based off the "original" rifle KDGuardian created and also the closest to a "real" gun. Through using bullets with explosive packed cartridges, the gun would be able to fire rounds just like in real life. The only drawback was the difficulty in getting the explosives to have just the right strength, and most of these guns ended up blowing up after one "bad" bullet, breaking it at best and killing its owner at worst.

The second type was Magic Guns, which many adventurers complained were just wands or staffs that were reskinned as guns. These guns allowed magicians to fire spells out of them by pulling the trigger and also allowed the ability to "charge" spells by pumping excess manna into the gun before firing to increase its destructive effects.

The third type, and most common, was the Rune Rifle. Gunsmiths created bullets with "rune cartages", cartages with weak runes placed on them, which would allow a more controlled burst, compared to the Alchemist Repeater.

However, the guns still weren't very powerful, the bullets having a speed about the same as an enchanted arrow, and did roughly the same damage as traditional ranged weapons or magic. The diminished usefulness of the newly created weapon meant the only people who really took to using guns were role-players, and gun-fanatics.

_Yep, fanatics_.

Hawk Rain started to reload her gun until she saw Cannibal looking at her.

"What are you looking at…" she asked, her hands still working as she talked, placing the next rune on the bullet.

"At someone who can't tell the difference between a person's head, and their chest." Cannibal replied, "Though with that gun I guess it's all the same to you."

"I killed him… Descriptions don't matter now..."

She opened the bottom of her gun as vent of steam was ejected from the opening.

"Maybe you shouldn't stand in the way…" She added.

Hawk Rain was level 87, the lowest level in the party, but in attack power, she could deal more damage at one time than anyone else.

She did this through pairing her gun, [Panacea], which had the highest attack ability of any gun created in the North American Server, her Medicineman skills, [Totem of the Eagle], which raised her crit chance, [Totem of the Tortoise], which she used to create small barriers behind her back and around [Panacea] to absorbed the guns massive recoil, and specially made explosive rounds, crafted with her Rune Master subclass. This gave her the power to one shot almost any mob character she came up against with incredible accuracy and tear threw the HP of raid bosses and adventurers.

The downside was that she could only fire once with [Panacea] before it overheated, forcing her to wait for its long cool down to fire the next shot, which left her vulnerable for about 10 minute or so.

Usually, being a party's surveyor, the cool down rate did not affect Hawk Rain's efficiency during raids, however in the current situation, being able to only take one enemy out every 10 minutes was a disadvantage.

Cannibal turned and threw a stream of daggers at a rider, taking a small portion of the rider's health.

"Bad hit combo…" mumbled Hawk Rain, smiling.

Cannibal ignored her comment.

Range wise, Cannibal's party was at a disadvantage. The driver, Veil, had no range capabilities, and the same went for the summoner, Lord Gates. That left only Chief and himself, both who, while having ranged attacks, were still mostly close quarter combatants, and Hawk Rain's attack at ten minute intervals.

However, stopping the wagon and fighting hand to hand was out of the question. With the manpower the raiders had, Cannibal knew it would be impossible to fight them all and win, but, with the amount of damage their wagon was taking, it would only be a matter of time before it gave out under their feet.

"If we fought this lot now, what would be our chance of victory?" he asked Hawk Rain.

"Fifty percent at this distance… Thirty if we stop the wagon…" Hawk Rain mumbled.

"Chief, how much more till we break through this mountain range?" he asked the cleric besides him, ducking as a bullet whizzed past his head.

"Well," Chief began, raising his shield to cover them both, "if the routes haven't changed since the Apocalypse, another hour or so."

_So no losing them that way then._

Cannibal threw [Curse of the Blood Baron] again. It bounced harmlessly off a PK's shield.

"But thankfully the routes have changed." A gravelly voice said from behind them.

Cannibal turned to see Lord Gates, who had been silently mapping out the area with his cartographer's skill, look up from his writing and continue to talk from under his eerily bandaged face.

"The path we are on now is the same one that we are used to, Smugglers Tunnel."

Lord Gates nonchalantly tipped his head to the side as a bullet whizzed by his ear and lifted the map for Cannibal and Chief to see.

"But there are separate tunnels, we passed while we were speeding from those riders, which I've never seen before, and ones they probably haven't looked through either."

Cannibal thought for a second. "You think we could lose them if another one of these paths shows up?"

"Could do that." Lord Gates shrugged, "Or, you know, we could always wait for another hour. I'm sure I'll have to be revived a few time by Chief," he grinned darkly, as if he found some sort of humor in it, "but I'll leave, that decision up to you."

"There's a break on our left coming up!" yelled Veil from the front, "Brace yourselves!"

"Wait, for the next one!" yelled Cannibal, "We're cutting this one to close."

"I agree with the Vampire..." said Hawk Rain, "Panacea is almost charged…"

"And I'd rather stop the car and slaughter them myself." laughed Veil, "But you guys said no to that waaay back. So…"

There was a jerk to the caravan as the Veil, pulled the reins.

"Into the unknown!"

There was a sickening screech, both from the drakes and the wheels of the caravan as the entire wagon shifted to one side, causing it to do a massive wheelie.

Chief quickly stuck his body out the floating side of the wagon in an attempt to stop the entire thing from tipping over and crashing into the stone walls that scraped its edges.

Lord Gates had tied himself down with rope from the caravan like a makeshift seatbelt, continuing to write.

Hawk Rain looked like she was going to puke.

Veil was laughing manically.

Cannibal, anchored himself to the wagon, planting two daggers into the floor.

Thunk.

The floating wheels reconnected with the ground as the wagon sped down the new path.

"Did we make it?" asked Hawk Rain.

Chief wiped his brow. "Yes, we did."

"Good…" replied Hawk Rain, "Now I can punch Veil in the- urp"

Veil laughed as Hawk Rain threw up out the back of the wagon. "What was that? Couldn't quite hear you over the sound of you puking."

"You…"

"Wait." Chief interrupted, "The bandits, have stopped following."

Cannibal looked behind him. Sure enough the bandits were all huddle at the entrance firing their guns but did not pursue the caravan any further.

"They have good reason not to." said Lord Gates, not looking up from his paper this time, "This path I recognize."

Continuing to write he pointed at the ropes still securing his body, "You might want to tie yourself down too."

Cannibal looked down at him, "Why?" he asked slowly.

"Because," smiled Lord Gates, "This path leads to the-"

Suddenly the drakes let out a screech, and Cannibal found himself floating in the air.

"-Pit of Slaughter dungeon." Lord Gates ended.

"Hawk Rain, you might want to use some of those defense buffs you have," Lord Gates instructed, "and Chief same goes to you except save some MP…"

His last words were drowned out by the sudden rush of air and the screaming of both the drakes and the adventurers.

"You might need to use that revive."

* * *

><p>So goes another chapter. :D<p>

I was wondering about guns for a while, but watching a side character in episode 8 of Log Horizon S2 pull one out, though it was just 10 seconds of screen time, made my day. Turning a RPG to a FPS like a boss! I applaud you side character!

So guns, guns, guns. I felt, as an American myself, if a large chunk of the American gamer population was trapped in a fantasy setting, crafting guns would be almost at the top of the list of "things we **have** to make.", probably right underneath good tasting food. And, if my Canadian gamer buddies could be considered a good representation of the Canadian gamer community, it would probably be up there on the Canadian gamer's list too, though probably after more practical things on the list, like heaters, plumbing and medicine.

Anyway, thanks for reading my story and authors notes (rant), and I hope you enjoyed it!

Questions comments are still welcome!


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